…is my favorite time of the year, even though I’m often restless and sad in the fall. It’s an ending in so many ways, particularly this year.

We’ll be taking the boat out of the water this coming weekend and then probably closing up the cottage in the next two weeks. So our next couple of lake weekends will be busy with scrubbing the boat and getting it to storage, packing perishable items that can’t stay over the winter so we can take them home, storing linens, and winterizing.

The saddest thing is leaving our new friends. It’s odd, but all summer, the lake has felt like our real life and when we come home, it seems as if we are just marking time until we can go back there. I’m not sure if that’s simply because that life is new or because we may be transitioning into the rest of our lives. Not that it matters. What matters is that I know I’m going to miss all the lake people more than I can say over the winter and I hate to see summer ending.

On the upside–and if you know me at all, you know I always try to find the upside–we won’t be driving so much, we can enjoy our little house here and settle back into a routine for winter. I’ll probably have more time for writing and get to see my friends here more frequently. The holidays will bring good times with family and Son and DIL will be home at Christmas.

I should stop pouting and be grateful for the many blessings bestowed on me. So…I will. The plan is to enjoy the next couple of weekends at the lake. The community will have a bonfire soon and I’ll have a chance to get hugs and say my farewells, knowing we’ll all be together again in the spring. Email and phone calls will keep us bonded through the cold winter months and I’m certain we’ll connect at the lake a couple of times during “closed” season.

Related

“Autumn…”

I know what you mean. I’ve live in a “seasonal” town for six years. Our warm winter months draw the Canadian visitors, the second home owners from the northern states, and they arrive this month and leave in March. It’s always sad when they go but then I fall easily into my summer routine and as fall arrives I get excited to welcome old friends back.